Natan Levy of France kicks Mike Davis in their lightweight fight during the UFC Fight Night event at UFC APEX on March 16, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images) Israeli fighter “Lethal” Natan Levy’s fourth appearance in the UFC octagon on March 16 did not go as planned.
In a fight at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Levy took on Mike “Beast Boy” Davis, but tapped out near the midpoint of the second round while in an arm triangle. The loss brings the Paris-born, Herzliya, Israel-raised Levy’s overall career record to 8-2-0. It was also Levy’s first fight since the Oct. 7 attacks on his homeland of Israel.
Throughout the training process, fight week buildup, and right up to the moment before he stepped into the octagon, the situation in Israel was front and center in Levy’s mind.
During his March 15 weigh-in, Levy stood on the scale and signaled 1-3-4 with his fingers to the onlooking media, paying tribute to the 134 hostages from Israel still being held captive by Hamas in Gaza. Besides Levy, the only other active UFC fighter from Israel is Shimon “The Assassin” Smotritsky. As Levy and his entourage made their way to the octagon, Smotritsky not only carried the Israeli flag behind Levy to the sounds of Levy’s walkup song, “The Final” (הפינאלי) by Subliminal & The Shadow featuring Alona Tal. He also became the bearer of Levy’s “bring them home now” dog tags that Levy only seems to take off during fights, sparring and weigh-ins.
Levy and Davis’ lightweight division fight was the final bout of the preliminary matches of the UFC Vegas 88 event. The fight opened with Levy landing a powerful kick to Davis’ face. Davis blocked Levy’s next kick, and followed up with a right hook to Levy’s face with 4:42 left in the first round.
For the next 3 minutes and 20 seconds, the two would remain on the mat, with Levy ceding his back to Davis, both facing upward from the mat. Levy’s arms were pinned back, and to the untrained eye, for several moments the two laid on the canvas without much movement. But both fighters exerted tremendous strength, as Levy would several times break just enough leverage on his right hand to land a punch on Davis’ face, mere inches from the back of his own head. Just as the commentators on the ESPN+ broadcast noted “how composed Davis [was],” with 1:21 left in the first round, although their legs remained tangled on the mat, Levy overpowered Davis with a right pop to the face. Levy made a strategic grip of Davis’ left leg with his right hand and escaped. Levy, now standing with Davis on his knees and pushed up against the cage, landed three knees to Davis’ torso. Levy then hit two left-handed punches to the left side of Davis’ face. Immediately after Levy’s last punch, Davis was able to roll to his left and get Levy back on the mat, now with a kneebar on Levy’s left foot. Undeterred, Levy freed his right leg from underneath himself and landed a heel-first axe kick to Davis’ chest. They two rolled on the mat before the first round came to a close.
Referee Mike Beltran gave Davis a verbal warning about his up-kick, an illegal move when your opponent on his back. After the round ended, Davis gave Levy a friendly two-handed tap on his back and one-handed double tap on his chest. The two clearly have respect for one-another.
Round two began with Levy putting up a quick kick and punch, both blocked by Davis. Levy then followed up with a fierce left foot to Davis’ midsection. Levy would up a powerful left kick that was broken up at just the right time by Davis with a left-handed forearm jab under Levy’s left armpit, knocking him backward.
With Levy now on his back, Davis stood over him, holding Levy’s feet. The two rolled and evaded punches until Levy ended up in an arm triangle choke. Escape attempts by Levy were rebuffed for the next 55 seconds. With 3:17 left in the second round, while in an arm triangle, Levy tapped out for the first time in his UFC career.
The two exchanged a friendly hug in the seconds following the match, underscoring the respect the two have for each other. It was a significant night for both fighters, with Levy and Davis having been sidelined since late 2022. Davis lastfight was a victory by unanimous decision over Viacheslav Borshchev on Oct. 1, 2022. Davis would undergo surgeries to his knee and shoulder following the fight.
The matchup with Davis on Saturday was Levy’s first fight since December 3, 2022, a unanimous decision victory over Genaro Valdez.
2023 was fraught with several frustrating events for the fighter from Herzliya, Israel. Levy’s scheduled fight against Pete Rodriguez on May 13, 2023 was scratched due to Rodriguez not making weight. Levy took to Instagram to vent his frustration:
“Guys I’m really sorry, fight is off, Fat Pete couldn’t get anywhere near the weight. He blew my opportunity to perform, earn a bonus & make history tomorrow, He probably killed his own career. Extremely unprofessional.”
While training for his next fight, Levy took matters into his own hands to address virulent antisemitism.
On Aug. 18, in response to a challenge by a follower of Holocaust denier and white supremacist Nick Fuentes, Levy fought a man only identified as “Ben” in an unofficial match. While wearing his brand’s shirt with “Jew-Jitzu” written on it in blue. Levy said he “wouldn’t hurt him too bad” but would teach him a lesson on hate. And indeed, he did.
“Education is painful sometimes,” Levy said.
Levy was then scheduled to fight Alex Reyes in Las Vegas on September 16, 2023, but a pre-fight medical test caused UFC to pull Levy eight days prior. Levy explained the situation to fans on X:
“Unfortunately, the UFC had to pull me from the fight due to a pre-fight medical test that revealed I have an extremely low level of blood platelets. Still need to figure out why this happened but I’m not even allowed to spar or train with contact till the numbers go back up. (My blood won’t clot well enough if I get any brain trauma). This explains why I haven’t been feeling at my best but I was still training my hardest and was planning to show up on fight night and put on a show for the fans. I’m heartbroken about the fight, I haven’t fought in way too long and was really looking forward to this one but I guess this is not my year. Sorry to Alex, hope we can do this a different time, sorry to the fans and everyone that bought a ticket to watch me. I’ll focus on getting healthy and then I’ll be back better than ever.”
Twenty-nine days later, Levy was back in Israel for the High Holy Days. Levy was only 25 miles away from the carnage as the terror attacks of Oct. 7 unfolded.
The following week, Levy went on TMZ and said and spoke about Hamas’ terror attacks.
“It’s atrocious, what they’ve done, what they’ve been doing, this is really terrorism,” Levy said. “They’ve crossed any red line of war. This is war crimes. they just announced outside of Gaza where the terrorists infiltrated. First they found 40 dead babies, some of them beheaded, some of them burnt alive.”
“They’ve crossed any red line of war. This is war crimes. they just announced outside of Gaza where the terrorists infiltrated. First they found 40 dead babies, some of them beheaded, some of them burnt alive.” – Natan Levy
He continued, “I think we’re going to have to attack, and they left us no choice. Honestly, in Israel, every time there’s an option for a truce, they always poke the bear. We have a very strong army. We do what we call, you mow the lawn, you take care of a few people from Hamas who organize the terror attacks and then they ask for truce and you say, yeah, sure, we don’t want a war. We want to save lives, but this time there is no truce. By the time we get done with them, there’s not going to be anybody left to do truce with. And I’m talking about Hamas. And hopefully, the least amount of civilians get hurt, but all the blood is on their hands. We got to do something, we got to strike back and we got to get out as much people as we can out of there as fast as possible because the way they hold hostages, it’s not humane, it’s crimes against humanity.”
On Dec. 3, Levy made an announcement to the delight of his fans that he was medically cleared to fight.
“One year ago today, the best performance of my life against 10-1 gangster, Genaro Valdez on the biggest stage possible. Had a couple of even better performances in the chamber for you guys but S— happened. Now, I’m a much better Martial artist, Athlete & fighter. I’m healthy, I just got cleared to fight and I am pissed off too. I’m ready to get back in there soon.”
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Levy documented his training for the fight with Davis, rarely going more than one or two social media posts in a row to his over 150,000 followers without mentioning Israel’s ongoing war with Hamas and urging the return of the 134 hostages.
The year for Levy ended on a high note. In late December, Levy hosted a self-defense seminar for the Jewish community at Fight Factory gym in Brooklyn. Over 100 people came to train with him. There, they wrapped tefillin and recited the Shema.
In January, Levy took a short break from training and traveled from Las Vegas to Palm Springs with wife Dana. They were invited by actor Jeremy Piven to attend the premiere of the Holocaust film “The Performance.” The film is about an American Jewish tap dancer who was scouted by the Nazis to perform for Hitler. Piven stars in the movie, directed by his daughter Shira. It’s a testament to Levy’s surging popularity in the media and unabashed advocacy for the Jewish people to audiences that extend far beyond the community. Though his loss today in UFC is a downer for his fans, Levy continues to be both a prominent and inspirational symbol of strength to Jewish UFC fans and beyond.
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